Kanye West Is The Cover Of Time's 100 Most Influential People

Kanye West is one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. The hip-hop titan would be the first person to tell you he belongs on this list. 

The dude doesn't believe in false modesty, and he shouldn’t. 

“Everytime I say something that’s extremely truthful out loud, it literally breaks the Internet,” says ‘Kanye. “I don't care about having a legacy, I don't care about being remembered. The most important thing to me is while I'm here, what can we do for each other to make life easier, make life doper for our kids as they grow?”

Kanye’s belief in himself and his incredible tenacity he performed his first single with his jaw wired shut got him to where he is today. 

And he fought for his place in the cultural pantheon with a purpose. In his debut album, over a decade ago, Kanye issued what amounted to a social critique and a call to arms (with a beat)
“We rappers is role models: we rap, we don’t think.” 

But Kanye does think. Constantly. About everything. And he wants everybody else to do the same: to engage, question, push boundaries. 

“My mother made me believe in me,” he says. “[My parents] just let me dream. They supported me. They pushed me. They didn't set me up to be inside of a box.”

Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pens a tribute to the rapper in the magazine. 

“Now that he’s a pop-culture juggernaut, he has the platform to achieve just that,” writes Musk. “He’s not afraid of being judged or ridiculed in the process. Kanye’s been playing the long game all along, and we're only just beginning to see why.”

His wife Kim Kardashian is also on the list, and received her own write-up from Martha Stewart, who compared her and her family to the Brady Bunch.

“Kim comes across as an enviable big sister in a clan where everyone seems to love one another,” she says.